Space Party We did this the year comet Hale-Bopp made its appearance. It was mid-January, though, so we had to do everything inside.

Decorations: I found some jumbo sized gold tinsel left over from Christmas and hung that from the ceiling. Balls of newspaper hung up make great, lightweight asteroids. Covered one wall in newsprint so that the kids could work on a mural of the universe while everyone was gathering. Had lots of stickers on hand--holographic stars, planets, moons, etc.

We used the mural for Pin the tail on Hale-Bopp, using some pieces of the tinsel as the tail. (if you're in the know, you can hide a small UFO in the tail of the comet) We built Mars Rovers out of graham crackers, Oreo's, licorice, etc. with tubes of frosting for glue. Teddy Grahams make great Martians, when you give them licorice antennae and red-hots for eyes!

We had a Space Station Mir piñata (that was also around the time that Mir had been in a collision and was falling apart) I took a football shaped piñata, sprayed it silver, and gave it lots of paper-towel tube appendages, and solar panels. Be sure to attach a little paper window with an astronaut peeking out.

The cake: two 9 inch rounds, one frosted green and blue for Earth, and one frosted white for the moon. Frost it extra thick and you can make realistic craters in the frosting by pressing in with different sized measuring spoons.